Category: Stand-Up Comedy

The New York Comedians Coalition has been pretty good about getting coverage for their cause, even if those stories have cliched “no joking” ledes like the one in Tuesday’s New York Times. Most of New York’s eleven (11!) comedy clubs have already agreed to raise rates for the comics, although the article suggests that the new expense might be passed on the club-goer.

Also posted in the same message board thread is a letter from Improv owner Al Martin where he makes the case for why he does not want to give all of the raises demanded by the Coalition. It’s a pretty compelling argument, if he had to start paying the spots set aside for developing act the same as he would “a-line” comics, it’s likely that he’d stop booking those spots for young talent. Though it’s hard to imagine what’s good for an industry when you’re trying to take care of your pocket, ensuring young comedians get exposure, even if means less money, is essential to keeping a vital industry. I won’t pretend to understand the economics of a comedy club, but I don’t believe either side has the luxury of being “right” (though the comics certainly lean more that way, considering how low their price per set was before).

According to the Coalition’s web site, the group will vote to accept or reject club’s offers this afternoon at 2:30 PM. We should know what raises and compromises have been made soon.

Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette premiered their new film “Aristocrats” at the Sundance Film Festival. The film is primarily the telling of one joke over and over again by comics as varied as Phyllis Diller, Steven Wright and Jon Stewart. The punchline is revealed in the title of the film. But even if you didn’t know it, the real humor comes from how darkly filthy the joke is told, with some versions including incest, bestiality, coprophilla and whatever else the comic can improvise at the moment.

The MPAA will likely rate it NC-17. If the language doesn’t kill ‘em first.

Shecky Magazine speculated that the film is a hoax, but the traditions of the joke are well established. Probably the most famous telling of the joke was by Gilbert Gottfried during the Friars’ Club Roast of Hugh Hefner… the joke never made it to air of course.

At 87 minutes of the same joke over and over again, the film could be close to a Bataan Death March of comedy, but it might be of the Mike Myers’ school of extended joke, where it because funny because it is so relentless. Personally, I can’t wait to see it. If you want to sample a segment of the film, a link to the “South Park” version of the joke can be found here (highly adult language, you have been warned…).

It strikes me this can be almost a comedic Rorschach test, with the improvised middle section revealing something of the comedian’s own dark weirdness when he or she starts describing the Aristocrats act. Or just a really good excuse to curse. Either one.

Why Gallagher’s angry about a program that was essentially just another variation of snarky commentators on pop culture artifacts is beyond me. He says New York and Los Angeles doesn’t get him… but he certainly doesn’t get NYC or LA if he takes meaningless programming like this seriously. Judging by the invitation on his site for visitors to claim he wuz robbed (bottom of the page on the right), he’s pretty serious.

Or maybe he’s just deluded and bitter. He’s actually mystified why Tom Hanks and Michael Keaton, who were “horrible” comedians, have film careers and he doesn’t. First, they’re different skill sets. Second, it’s hard to built a movie around “hey, look at this funny looking thing.” Third: Gallagher. In a movie. Brain. Hurts.

Stanhope points out that he can’t pause a beat for a joke anymore without a “flag-monkey” or “puddle-noggin” or “albino trailer-parrot” repeating Larry’s catchphrase. Stanhope also admits he’s not any exception to “whoring” (a reference to hosting the Man Show, not Girls Gone Wild), but with Larry the Cable Guy throwing the phrase on any number of T-shirts (including a south-shall-rise-again Confederate Flag version) you might see why “1,000 comics curse you nightly.”

Though Larry ain’t my thing at all, I can’t fault him for trying to ride that pony as far as it’ll take him. Stanhope can take heart that though Larry probably won’t die tragically, catchphrases usually take people exactly where they belong… Branson, MO.

While reading the article, one of the first things that flashed in my head was Bob Zmuda’s book on Andy Kaufman. In it, he describes how a 70s boycott of the LA Comedy Store damaged the art of comedy. At the time, the Comedy Store had comics perform for free. Andy Kaufman opposed the ban, believing it would hurt comedic experimentation. His rationale: the more people had to pay for a show, the more conventional entertainment they’d demand from comics. (I’m away for the holidays, so I can’t provide the exact reference. I’ll dig it up on my return.)

I certainly don’t feel this way myself. I do think the price of seeing a show ($30 a person according to the article) does keep good crowds out and makes people a lot more demanding. But there are the alternative spaces out there which allow for comedic experimentation and attract crowds that embrace it. (Something Kaufman couldn’t had forseen in the 70s.)

In a sense, comics at mainstream clubs are getting paid to put up with performing for audiences that aren’t as sophisticated, interesting or intelligent as those in alternative spaces. Raising pay rates may not always be good for comedy artistry, but for the comedy industry it’s a good thing.

Caught the rerun of “The Seinfeld Story” where Jerry Seinfeld asserts he knew even as he was pitching it that his sitcom wasn’t going to be about how a comic generates material. He states pretty categorically that no one would want to watch such a thing. (Of course, a two-hour documentary called “Comedian”... that people will watch.)

While I’m not sure people would indulge in a half-hour series about comics developing material, they might view a web short on the subject. Over on aspecialthing.com, they have a little QuickTime movie entitled “Birth of a Joke,” a first in what they hope will be monthly series. In it, LA comic Sari Karplus talks about a new joke she’s has about the true story of her parents meeting. We see her try it for the first time. After sharing what she thought worked and what didn’t, we see her try out the new version a few weeks later.

It may sound a little dry, but if you have an iota of comedy nerd in you it’s great viewing. You almost want to play along and deconstruct with her, attempting to see how everything could fit together. It’s just a great little lesson-by-example in joke mechanics. I’m definitely looking forward to more of them.